Hey guys! I am so excited to share this post with you today because I have received a ton of questions about switching my blog from Wix to WordPress. Now if you are not a blogger, then this post is probably not for you. However, I know there are many of you (because you’ve asked me about blogging) that want to start blogging, and hopefully this post can help you decide if WordPress is for you!
Also, this isn’t really just about moving from Wix to WordPress; this could be true for any platform that you are using that isn’t WordPress. Also let me clarify that I am referring to WordPress.org and NOT WordPress.com. WordPress.com can be grouped with all the other platforms (Wix, Blogger, Squarespace, etc.)
So first, let’s establish my blogging history. I had been thinking about blogging for a long time, finally one day I told my husband that I wanted to start a blog and he encouraged me to start one. and I started one right away using Wix because my husband had a little experience using it and said it was easy.
So…I did NO RESEARCH…I jumped right in.
However, now I have researched A LOT, and honestly I would say 95% of what is out there recommends using WordPress for blogging.
So Why WordPress?
1. After reading so much about WordPress online, I realized that I needed to switch over because there were so many perks! For one, I want to see my blog grow, and hopefully grow into a business. WordPress is the ONLY one (that I know about) that allows you to be self-hosted where you OWN your blog completely. Using wordpress.org allows you to be in complete control of your own site. If you were owning your own business, wouldn’t you want to be completely in control of the decisions made? I would, and WordPress allows this. These choices may include monetizing any way you may like and adding plug-ins of your choosing.
2. WordPress is not primarily just for blogs, which means there are so many more options for your site than a typical blogging site. On Wix, there was only so much I was able to do. One small example was that I wasn’t able to add a pin-it button to my pictures. So how was my blog supposed to grow on Pinterest? On WordPress, your options are truly endless. If you can dream it, it can most likely be done on WordPress.
3. WordPress is known to have the best SEO. Which basically means, your site will be more easily found on search engines. (There’s a lot more technical talk on all this, but I’m just simplifying it).
4. All the big bloggers and websites use WordPress. I know I know, you can do your own thing. But why wouldn’t I do what I know is tested and true for success?
5. Lastly, and this is Wix specific (not sure how it works on other platforms), but I had the hardest time using Google Adsense on my site. If you are wanting to make money with Ads, Wix makes it very complicated.
WordPress Cons:
There are tons of perks to WordPress, but there are a few cons about WordPress as well.
1. A self-hosted WordPress site is not free. You will have to pay for your domain name and for your plan. (I paid for Wix a very similar amount so this wasn’t a big deal)
2. Wordpress uses coding.
Yikes…you all just imagined a lot of nerdy people that haven’t seen the light of day staring at computers…but to be real, you don’t have to use that much to start up a blog.
Yes, I have had to put in code a few times for my site, but honestly I just copy and paste it (and I did some of this on Wix anyway). I have never had to write my own code. Now do people do this? For sure, but I didn’t have to to make my own blog. However, the software itself can be a bit confusing for someone who doesn’t have a ton of computer knowledge. The good news is that there are tons of tutorials out there. One thing to note is that the more complicated you want to be on your site, the more you will have to look into coding, but there is help for that!
3. WordPress is not drag and drop. This really relates to the point above, you can’t just say oh I want a text box here and drag one over (that’s how Wix works). Instead there’s more setup/coding for everything, but in the long run it gives you the opportunity to do more.
The Bottom Line:
WordPress is for you if:
*You want to make your blog/site a business (and think long term, if you may want that in the future, then start with WordPress now!)
*You want your site to be more easily found on search engines
*You want to be able to add more features to your blog/site
WordPress is not for you if:
*You are creating a blog that is just a hobby and you never see it growing into a business
*You are not techy at all and really just want a super easy site to use
Process of Transferring from Wix to WordPress:
So I’m sure at this point I have a lot of you convinced now that you need to switch your site, so let’s talk about HOW you actually do that.
Let me tell you that this process created a lot of tears (3 times of crying to be exact says my husband lol), it was hard work!
But I don’t want that to scare you, because it was worth it.
Also, there are people you can pay that will switch your site for you. But I looked into it and saw that the cost (1ooo plus) was not worth it for me, I would rather do it myself because homegirl over here doesn’t have a money tree in the backyard!
Pro Tip: the sooner you switch your site, the better. I had over 130 posts I had to move over which was a ton of work!
There are a lot of great sites out there that tell you ways to switch over, and honestly I would rely on them over me, but I’m going to give you the simplified version of what I did: (also it probably works differently for different platforms).
1. I signed up with Bluehost for my domain name (which I actually kept the same, but a lot of tutorials recommend you picking a temporary one and switching it later). You do not have to go with Bluehost, I just saw that is was highly recommended and not super expensive.
2. I created my WordPress account (remember use WordPress.org and you will have to pay!).
3. Some tutorials said I could import all my old blog posts using an RSS feeder, but I tried and it didn’t work. So I manually copied and pasted every single post over. (This was a longggg process).
Pro Tip: Make sure you import all your pics into your media library in WordPress, not just copy and paste, or they won’t show up on some web browsers).
4. After I go everything moved over, I went to Etsy and purchased a theme I liked. I think I only had to spend around 35 dollars and all the work was done for me! Woot Woot! My only advice would be to pick one that uses the Genesis Framework and gives you good instructions on installation.
5. After that my old site was now all on my new WordPress site! I started setting up the features I wanted on my site by simply researching what to do! A few items I added were my Pinterest boards, menu headers, a shop with me page, etc.
6. When I was finally ready for my site to be public I had to shut down my Wix site. It was pretty self explanatory on my site, and then I had to make sure that search engines would pull up my WordPress site when people typed in www.daysofawife.com and not my old Wix site. So I researched this, but I believe it was called “tranferring my site” This took a few days, and then I was done!
Some resources I used to set up my site:
Epic Guide to WordPress: A great one to start with, walks you step by step (I used this one the most!)
20 Important Things to Do After WordPress Installation: Great for all the random stuff you don’t know you need to do!
How to Add a Pinterest Hover Button to WordPress Images: One of my favorite features!
My Blogging Pinterst Board: I’m constantly adding new tips and tricks here for blogging!
Please feel free to contact me with any questions I didn’t directly address in this post!
-Kasey
Keep up with all my posts on Bloglovin | See day to day pictures & stories on Instagram | Like the Kasey Holloway blog page on Facebook | Pin along with me on Pinterest | See what I’m reading on Goodreads